Monday, April 20, 2015

Salve,
I happily blog about horses and their riders in history and art, mostly about my corner of the woods, the pre-XX century Central Europe and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in particular.

However, from time to time I will add something about the current events or ideas, naturally dear to me, like the fate of the American wild horse aka mustang, or Polish modern history, or the Holocaust and German 'new history.'

So, when I read an article by not a small player in world's law enforcement and thus someone perceived possessing higher education and rather high ethical and moral standards (including absence of lying and falsehoods), namely FBI director James Comey, at the Washington Post page, I was flabbergasted and insulted.
This top-official of Obama administration said in his text:''In their minds, the murderers and accomplices of Germany, and Poland, and Hungary, and so many, many other places didn’t do something evil. They convinced themselves it was the right thing to do, the thing they had to do. That’s what people do. And that should truly frighten us''[ Washington Post ]
President Obama himself is not a stranger to this calumny - as evidenced in his speech in 2012.

Diplomatic intervention was needed and US ambassador was summoned in Warsaw responding with apology to Comey's mishmash of lies, but nothing beats a piece written by brave Anne Applebaum who had stepped in and had her short piece published responding to the Nazi-invented myth of Germany and her mythical Polish and Hungarian accomplices - a fragment:There are a number of problems with that pair of weak sentences,
starting with the vast difference between Germany and the rest.
During the war, Germany had a state policy of exterminating the Jews.
This policy involved not “accomplices” but hundreds of
bureaucrats, tens of thousands of soldiers, train schedules and
plans. Germany also encouraged the creation of collaborationist
governments in other countries – Vichy France, for example – some
of which used their own police officers to send their Jewish citizens
into the German death camps.Germany also occupied Poland, but there was no Polish “Vichy.”
During the war, there was no Polish state at all. Indeed, it was the
absence of the Polish state that enabled the Germans to create a
lawless, violent world, one in which anyone could be arbitrarily
murdered, any Jew could be deported — and any Pole who helped a Jew
could be shot instantly, along with his entire family. Many were.
Millions of others died too – Polish intellectuals, priests and
politicians were all Nazi targets.In the course of the war, most of Poland’s infrastructure,
industry and architecture were destroyed. In that atmosphere, many
people were frightened by or indifferent to the fate of the Jews, and
some murdered in order to avoid being murdered. But that doesn’t
mean that “in their minds” they “didn’t do something evil.[...] If the FBI director wants to take some lessons from Washington’s
excellent Holocaust museum, that’s very admirable. But first he should
make sure he’s understood what he’s seen”

Why I say Nazi-invented, well Reinhard Gehlen, German Nazi intelligence officer who after the Germany's defeat was taken prisoner and was working for the Americans leading the so called Gehlen Organization, and then since 1956 had been the director of the German Federal Intelligence Service, i.e., a true spy-master, employed former Nazis as his staff and as agents eg Klaus Barbie, Konrad Fiebig and Walter Kurreck etc. Amongst other tasks, these semi-secret agencies were working hard to dispel the negative image of post-Nazi Germany in Europe and the rest of the world. (good Polish article on the subject) .
One of these German intelligence officers and also a former Nazi Alfred Benzinger, accidentally :) a chief of Agency 114, is credited with the invention (probably with his good officers) of the term 'Polish Concentration Camps.'
The rest is history and our, Polish people (wherever we might reside), continuous nightmare... especially in the US, eg in the past I wrote to and called NY dailies like NY Times, NY Post and NY Daily News protesting their use of the term Polish Death Camps etc.

Therefore I am happy that Ms. Applebaum wrote her piece...

By the way let us not forget that between 1939 (August)-1941(June 22) Nazi Germany and Soviet Union were close allies, amongst other 'deeds' invading Poland, dividing the country and her peoples, and thus setting the stage for the Holocaust...

Thursday, April 9, 2015

Salve,
I do like the images of Baroque horses preserved in so many Dutch paintings and engravings.
Many of those can be found on Wikipedia or museums' pages (eg here), freely accessible for us to view and study, or simply for our feast and enjoyment - :)
Now, mostly on Wikipedia Commons they have 'corralled' a number of paintings showing prince Maurits (Maurice) van Oranje and his war stallions, mostly grey Dutch and Spanish (jenet) horses.

So let's corral them here too :)

enjoy
ps
by the way, the type of 3/4 gilded armour prince Maurits is wearing could have been also worn by the Polish winged hussars and magnates, as seen in some funerary monuments and paintings. The Spanish hose was prized and sought after in Polish lands at that time, as evidenced in the surviving paintings and written accounts etc.

Monday, April 6, 2015

Vízbevető - Easter Sprinkling or Water Plunge Day according to the XIX century Hungarian master Mihaly Munkacsy

- :)
* * *
this year Easter Tournament at the Royal Armouries Museum at Leeds is over, but you can always train for the next one -
before you do, here there is a clip showing jouster Jan Gradon, team Poland, striking another knight Ben van Koert, team Burgundy, ending in 'pan' Jan scoring a direct head strike while 'ser' Ben a shield one, and no injuries....
Greatly trained horses, I must add ..

About Me

Czołem/Salve, fellow net traveler... I am Dariusz aka Dario and this is my meydân. Born in the year of the Fire Horse hence I never tire of admiring, drawing & painting or sculpting horses, or just researching the history of equus cabalus, especially in the mounted warrior context. My drawings and paintings - prints - are available for sale (I use MyPaint, Krita & GIMP), I also do commissioned illustration etc, so if you need to contact me regarding a purchase, commission, or any other matter, do email me: darajawausz[at]gmail [dot] com
Ciao - Amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas